


Let the Darkness Cover Me

by Sid45ultra



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Death, DID I MENTION SPOILERS, Sad, Spoilers, spoilers for episode 88
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 16:19:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10136114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sid45ultra/pseuds/Sid45ultra
Summary: SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 88Vax'ildan, Champion of the Raven Queen, Member of Vox Machina, Hero of Tal'dorei has fallen. In the darkness he is so used to treading he stands face to face with the Raven Queen, waiting to see if this is the end of his story.





	

**Author's Note:**

> First bit of Critical Role fic. I suffer from clinical depression and one of my coping methods is writing depressing fanfiction.

Vax'ildan had learned to walk in darkness long ago. He had taken to the night as his sister had taken to the forests. He had always known it was where he was meant to be. That fact didn’t scare him, only make him a little sad. He could never share completely in the world his sister and their friends walked in. Even his beautiful Keyleth was removed from him in this fundamental way. She was a force of nature, a sun beam cutting through the storm clouds, brightening his life in ways he’d never imagined possible. He had hoped she would be enough to save him from the darkness he could always feel clinging to him. She had kept it at bay for a time. But then Vex had died in that tomb in the middle of nowhere. He had been forced to make a choice. He didn’t regret giving himself to the Raven Queen. She had granted him the power to save his home and his friends many times over and it was a debt he knew she would one day come to collect. He had hoped it would be years from now when he was older, wiser, and ready to step fully into that darkness with her.

Never had he imagined it would happen at the bottom of the sea, on a different plane, so far from home. Everything just seemed to slip away, and she was there. Monumental and eternal, white face haunting in its beauty. He didn’t bother begging, one doesn’t beg the mountain to stop existing. He simply met the Raven Queen’s steady gaze and hoped. Hoped that his part in her story wasn’t over, that the cosmic thread hadn’t been cut short. He hoped to see Keyleth again, see her fiery hair shining in the sun as she laughed. He hoped to see Grog, Pike riding high on his shoulder, drinking merrily in Grey Skull Keep. He hoped to see Percy, white hair flopping in his eyes as he sat bent over one of his impossible projects. He hoped to see Scanlan again someday, demons defeated, singing a ballad in a tavern with his daughter beside him. He even hoped to see Taryon, emboldened and confident and maybe a little humbler. Most of all, Vax’ildan hoped to see his sister, laughing as she rode her broom through the air, bow on her back, joy written on her face. He didn’t want to leave her alone in this unforgiving world where chance could snatch one’s life away at a moment’s notice.

Tears slipped down his cheeks as he stared at the Raven Queen. He knew she understood his fears and hopes. She understood, but it was beyond her power to do anything if this truly was his end.

“I can’t leave her. I can’t leave them. Not now.” He whispered, voice hoarse with emotion.

“Oh Vax’ildan. You are not the first to pass with much unfinished. You will not be the last.” The Raven Queen responded, her voice echoing gently in his head.

“I don’t care about them.” Vax hissed. “I don’t care about the countless billions who have died before me or the countless more who will come after. I am me and it can’t be my time.”

“It is not for us to decide when we die. Death comes for us all, and sooner or later, all stories must end.” She answered.


End file.
